The transfer of digital images from a user to a service provider for storage and printing is becoming more popular and more important. Typically, a digital camera user takes a plurality of digital images, which are stored on a removable memory card. These images can be transferred from the memory card and stored, for example, on a hard drive, recordable CD, or other non-volatile memory associated with the user's computer. While these stored images can be printed on a local printer, such as an ink Jet printer, it is often simpler and less expensive for the user to have the images printed by a service provider. When services are ordered from a service provider, the images need to be uploaded using a channel such as the Internet, and temporarily stored. The uploaded images can be stored for long-term access via the Internet. The storage of these images represents a significant cost to the service provider, and users are often unwilling to pay a monthly fee to the service provider for this service.
Digital images from scanned photographic film can be uploaded to a service provider for viewing, as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,215 to Fredlund et al., the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. Using a web browser, a group of these digital images can be viewed and selected for printing, for example using the Kodak Photonet Service. The user can select the size of each print to be produced, and the quantity of prints to be made from each image. Album pages can be produced from digital images by arranging numerous images on the same page, as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,061 to Manico et al., the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. These album pages can be customized in terms of the size and arrangement of images on the page, the size and finish of the album pages, and the background color or patterns used. Another service that can be provided using digital images is producing digital storage media (e.g. CD-R discs) with duplicate copies of the digital images.
Some web sites, such as the site provided by OFOTO at www.ofoto.com, enable a user to upload a group of digital images for long term storage and sharing with others over the Internet, and for providing digital printing services. This site permits a user to obtain an account using his e-mail address as the account name, and to provide a password and address information. The user can then upload a group of images, which are stored by the service provider at no cost to the user. After all the images are uploaded, the user can select particular images for printing or sharing with third parties designated by the user. The user is charged a set fee for each print made, depending on the print size. The cost of each print is the same whether the image was stored by the service provider for only one day, or for many months or years. Therefore, the user has no incentive to order prints immediately upon uploading, and the service provider is not compensated for the long-term storage of the user's images.